Pros & Amateurs Charge the Felt. Who will Celebrate when Last Cards are Dealt?
Another TV series is in the books (and in the can) for Windy City Poker Championship (WCPC), with new episodes premiering in the fall. Stay tuned for broadcast schedule and details. If you want to be surprised in early-2012, you can stop reading here.
SPOILER ALERT END
Poker Pros Jerry Yang, Chad Brown, Nick Brancato, Amanda Musumeci, and Faraz Jaka headed out, as did Rick Rahim, and local celebs Richard Roeper and David Kaplan (who guest hosted last year's WCPC season finale).
Thursday featured the Ante Up Magazine Chicago Poker Championship, a $150 event, which left two McDermott's standing when they were head's up. David McDermott Sr, lawyer, entertainment representative, and co-creator of WCPC lost his head's up bid to his eldest offspring - David McDermott Jr. Here they're shown later in the weekend:
McDermott Jr. sported a Johnny Cash-esque studded black shirt for the weekend, which drew some comments, mostly complimentary. I had the opportunity to play with the young rounder, who had just busted his second live tournament ever (the first being the one he won, and the second you'll hear about in our next post, but involves a final table finish in the Main Event.) The younger David was a surprising pleasure to play with at the cash table, fending off barbs from "The King" (a local ego... er... player), handling himself with maturity and decorum. End diversion...
Friday brought Day 1 of the Main Event, a $400 deep stack event that allowed multiple entries. This author busted the aforementioned McDermott Sr. in Level 3 of the event in a triple up hand. (He promptly re-entered for another deep run) I then played 80% of the hands for the next level to accumulate almost t90,000, from the t25,000 start. I was chip leader for the next several hours, continuing to play 70%+ of all hands, and eventually doubling up David "The Fish" Backstrom when my flopped top two (Aces and Kings) ran into his flopped set of Kings, as the case King came in the door.
Day 1 ended with only 15 or so players remaining to come back for an abbreviated Day 2 to set the final table for Sunday's TV table.
Day 2 of the Main Event coincided with the third day of the series, on Saturday - the televised "Winner Take All" event day. Chad Brown and Jerry Yang made an early appearance Saturday, as did Nicky Brancato and David Kaplan who headed immediately to the interview room. In time Richard Roeper appeared, and there was some speculation as to whether or not Faraz would make it. He had been playing in the Epic Poker League event the night before at The Palms in Las Vegas. As the event winded down toward the bubble, in fact with 15 left and 13 getting paid, Faraz was still in the hunt. That's when a hand that will live in infamy took place. It will be known, at least for some time, as "The Hand". As its a little off topic for this site, you may read about The Hand here. In short, Faraz went busto with Aces, and headed to the airport. He rolled in to the Countryside, IL poker room mid-afternoon, without having slept the night before, and look a great deal like Seinfeld's Cosmo Kramer.
Amateurs and Pros faced off at the heralded Winner Take All televised table. Nick Brancato outlasted the field in 2010 to take down the event, but was one of the early departures this year, as was another 2010 deeper runner, 2007 WSOP Main Event Champ Jerry Yang.
Chad Brown, Rick Rahim, Meg Bertini, and Nikki Griffith of Bust Out Poker Apparel departed around the middle of the field, and left local personalities Richard Roeper and David Kaplan to duke it out with show sponsor Paul Fisher of Danley's Garages and pro Jaka for all the marbles.
In the end, Jaka outlasted the field to take down the $12,000 prize pool.
Results:
- Faraz Jaka
- Paul Fisher
- David Kaplan
- Richard Roeper
Prizes:
$12,000 prize Pool Cash Value= WPT Main Event Seat in Florida Apri 28th,$5k seat + Airfare + Hotel + Trophy + Buy In + Blue Shark Optics + WPT Boot Camp Certificate + HDTV*